New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Black History

Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

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Universal African Legion in front of the UNIA Liberty Hall on 138th Ave in Harlem, NY during the 1924 UNIA Convention's opening day parade. Photo by James Van Der Zee.Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born printer who as a young man became keenly aware of the severe discrimination against Black people, particularly dark skinned people, internationally.

He later moved to London where he met several Black Nationalists seeking to end white European colonialism in Africa.

At a library in London he read Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery in which Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, urged that African-Americans pull themselves up and establish black institutions, over seeking equal rights through integration. [Read more…] about Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

Baseball’s Satchel Paige on Long Island

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long island history project logoBy 1950, Satchel Paige was a star of the Negro Leagues and a World Series winner with the Cleveland Indians. He spent most of that year barnstorming across the United States which is what brought him to Riverhead Stadium on Long Island.

In this episode of the Long Island History Project, librarian and historian Fabio Montella relates his research into Satchel, Riverhead, and the deeper connections between Long Island and Negro League baseball. [Read more…] about Baseball’s Satchel Paige on Long Island

Sag Harbor’s Historically African American Vacation Community

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SANS webinarThe Preservation League of New York State has announced a virtual presentation set for Thursday, August 27th, looking at the historically African American vacation community of Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest & Ninevah Subdivions (SANS), its place in the context of other historically African American beach communities, what their unique challenges are, and what is being done to protect them. [Read more…] about Sag Harbor’s Historically African American Vacation Community

Black Builder Jacob Wynkoop Exhibit Goes Online

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Jacob WynkoopJacob Wynkoop was born in New Paltz, New York, in 1829, the child of two former slaves, Thomas and Jane Deyo Wynkoop. Wynkoop had an exceptional and varied life for any man of his time.

Among the first African Americans to buy land in the community, he also served in the Union Army during the Civil War, organized politically on behalf of African American citizens in town, and built a series of homes that today still define a neighborhood in the village of New Paltz. [Read more…] about Black Builder Jacob Wynkoop Exhibit Goes Online

Latest US Colored Troops Civil War Digest Issued

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USCT Civil War DigestFor more than two decades, the US Colored Troops Civil War Digest has been published with the support of Hartwick College and the membership of the United States Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research (USCTI).

[Read more…] about Latest US Colored Troops Civil War Digest Issued

Anna Murray-Douglass: Frederick’s Most Important Ally

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Anna Murray-DouglassI offer the following tribute to Anna Douglass, first wife of Frederick Douglass and mother of their five children, on the anniversary of her death Aug. 4, 1882:

Both Frederick Bailey and Anna Murray were born in rural Maryland in the early 1800s and grew up under harsh racist customs that strictly defined roles for men and women by sex, race and class.

By the time Frederick and Anna met in the 1830s in Baltimore, his owner valued him as a slave who was a skilled caulker. Yet Anna, despite being a free woman skilled as a domestic and cook, was not well paid by her white employers. [Read more…] about Anna Murray-Douglass: Frederick’s Most Important Ally

Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

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Philip A Payton Jr circa 1914The Underground Railroad Coalition recently announced a major effort to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the New York State constitutional provision that ended slavery in the State on July 4, 1827.

The emancipation provision in the New York State Constitution of 1799 provided for the gradual elimination of slavery in New York, but it did not end the widespread legal race discrimination in the state. The most glaring example of this was the New York State Constitution of 1821, which eliminated property qualifications to vote for white men, but denied black men owning less than $250 worth of property the right to vote. [Read more…] about Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

Adirondack Black History Virtual Programs In August

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north country liveNorth Country Community College, the Adirondack Diversity Initiative and the Adirondack North Country Association are collaborating to present a series of timely and necessary online programs that shine light on Black History in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Adirondack Black History Virtual Programs In August

The Legacy of Enslavement on Long Island

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Joseph Lloyd Manor courtesy of Preservation Long IslandPreservation Long Island has announced a series of public roundtable events to be streamed as part of The Jupiter Hammon Project. This multi-year initiative aims to expand interpretive and educational programming at the Joseph Lloyd Manor, an 18th century manor house in Lloyd Harbor, and a site of Black enslavement that is owned and operated by Preservation Long Island. [Read more…] about The Legacy of Enslavement on Long Island